The most common types of anesthesia used for cats are injectable types. We often use drugs such as ketamine and alfaxalone. These dissociative drugs detach the conscious mind. To maintain these injectables, we commonly use gas anesthesia, the most common type being isoflurane. However, some hospitals use sevoflurane. Both are types of gas anesthetics used to keep your pet under general anesthesia.

Yes, depending on the type of procedure, we'll prescribe multiple days of pain medication for your cat to take home. We'll go over the medication and how you should administer it. Most of our surgical patients go home on some type of pain management, as we want them to be comfortable and pain-free.

Aftercare instructions will be provided both verbally and in written form when you're here, as it's crucial that you know what to do when you take your cat home. Most instructions are common sense, such as keeping them away from small children and other pets that might harm them. We want them in a quiet environment as they recover from the procedure. We'll also guide you on how to care for them and what to watch for at their surgical sites.

The time your cat can come home depends on the time and type of procedure they had. For example, if they had a minor procedure like a neuter, they can usually go home a couple of hours after surgery. However, for bigger procedures like bladder stone removal, we need to monitor them for a longer period, so they might stay with us for the better part of the day. Regardless, all our surgical patients go home by the end of the day, often by five o'clock in the evening to recuperate at home.

Yes, ideally your cat should be fasted for surgery. This means no food after around eight or nine o'clock at night, and none in the morning. The one exception is for giving your cat its calming medication. We allow a small amount of canned food or a Churu or squeeze-up to encourage them to take their medication. Aside from this, your cat should not have any big meals. However, your cat should have access to water, as it's important that they stay hydrated.

One of the things that you should do before your cat's surgery is to prepare them and their environment. If your cat is difficult to catch, consider putting them in a smaller room overnight so that they're easier to handle in the morning. It's also a good idea to have the carrier out for several days before the surgery, as cats can get nervous if they see the carrier come out just before they have to leave.

We often prescribe a calming therapy for your cat. One of the most common medications we prescribe is gabapentin, which is given at home, usually the morning of surgery. If your cat is particularly anxious, we might even have you give a dose the night before surgery. This is all to ensure your cat feels calm and comfortable when coming in for anesthesia and surgery. When your cat comes home after surgery, it's best to keep them in a calm, quiet space away from children and other animals, allowing them to reacclimate at their own pace.

Yes, there can be side effects and complications from cat surgery. Infection is one of the most common complications post-surgery. Cats sometimes lick their surgical sites which can lead to the site opening up, or dehiscence. Inflammation in the form of swelling can also occur. For instance, after a cat's spay operation, there could be seroma, or swelling, if the cat is too active too soon, causing fluid to get into the surgical site. A rare but serious complication is a complete dehiscence of a surgical wound, such as when an incision into the abdominal cavity comes undone. I've only seen this once in my career, it's very rare. But the way we prepare the surgical site and the aftercare your cat receives can help to reduce these risks.

The risks of cat surgery can be minimized through various methods. Anesthesia safety and surgical safety are paramount. Surgical safety includes using sterile, properly autoclaved instruments, and properly preparing the surgical site. This includes proper clipping and aseptic technique, which involves cleaning the surgical site appropriately. At Blue Oasis Pet Hospital, we are an AAHA certified hospital and we adhere to certain standards to help mitigate infection. In the field of dentistry, for example, we use good technique and proper, sharp instruments. We replace items like dental burrs after using them once. Your veterinarian has numerous ways to prepare the surgical site carefully and correctly, and to help reduce the risk of infection afterwards.

Yes, cat surgery is just like human surgery. It involves altering tissues which can lead to inflammation and bleeding. There's also a risk of infection. It's important to discuss these risks with your veterinarian, particularly in relation to the specific type of surgery your cat will be having.

The pain level your cat experiences depends on the procedure they had. We use a lot of preemptive pain management. Before we do something painful to your cat at the surgical site, we will preemptively give them pain control using pain reliever medications and local nerve blocks. We will also give your cat pain medication to take home, so that they continue to have pain control therapeutics at home. However, surgery is surgery, and it evokes pain. We can't take all pain away, but we do our very best to reduce it. We want you to know what kind of pain relievers your cat is having, and how we help keep them comfortable and keep them moving forward in their recovery at home.